The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 46

[Sidenote: SECT. 6]

Grain not thy vicious stains, nor deepen those swart Tinctures, which Temper, Infirmity, or ill habits have set upon thee; and fix not by iterated depravations what time might Efface, or Virtuous washes expunge. He, who thus still advanceth in Iniquity deepneth his deformed hue; turns a Shadow into Night, and makes himself a _Negro_ in the black Jaundice; and so becomes one of those Lost ones, the disproportionate pores of whose Brains afford no entrance unto good Motions, but reflect and frustrate all Counsels, Deaf unto the Thunder of the Laws, and Rocks unto the Cries of charitable Commiserators. He who hath had the Patience of _Diogenes_, to make Orations unto Statues, may more sensibly apprehend how all Words fall to the Ground, spent upon such a surd and Earless Generation of Men, stupid unto all Instruction, and rather requiring an Exorcist, than an Orator for their Conversion.

[Sidenote: SECT. 7]

Burden not the back of _Aries_, _Leo_, or _Taurus,_ with thy faults; nor make _Saturn_, _Mars_, or _Venus_, guilty of thy Follies. Think not to fasten thy imperfections on the Stars, and so despairingly conceive thy self under a fatality of being evil. Calculate thy self within, seek not thy self in the Moon, but in thine own Orb or Microcosmical Circ.u.mference. Let celestial aspects admonish and advertise, not conclude and determine thy ways. For since good and bad stars moralize not our Actions, and neither excuse or commend, acquit or condemn our Good or Bad Deeds at the present or last Bar, since some are Astrologically well disposed who are morally highly vicious; not Celestial Figures, but Virtuous Schemes must denominate and state our Actions. If we rightly understood the Names whereby G.o.d calleth the Stars, if we knew his Name for the Dog-Star, or by what appellation _Jupiter_, _Mars_, and _Saturn_ obey his Will; it might be a welcome accession unto Astrology, which speaks great things, and is fain to make use of appellations from Greek and Barbarick Systems. Whatever Influences, Impulsions, or Inclinations there be from the Lights above, it were a piece of wisdom to make one of those Wise men who overrule their Stars,[356] and with their own Militia contend with the Host of Heaven. Unto which attempt there want not Auxiliaries from the whole strength of Morality, supplies from Christian Ethicks, influences also and illuminations from above, more powerfull than the Lights of Heaven.

[356] _Sapiens dominabitur Astris._

[Sidenote: SECT. 8]

Confound not the distinctions of thy Life which Nature hath divided: that is, Youth, Adolescence, Manhood, and old Age, nor in these divided Periods, wherein thou art in a manner Four, conceive thyself but One.

Let every division be happy in its proper Virtues, nor one Vice run through all. Let each distinction have its salutary transition, and critically deliver thee from the imperfections of the former, so ordering the whole, that Prudence and Virtue may have the largest section. Do as a Child but when thou art a Child, and ride not on a Reed at twenty. He who hath not taken leave of the follies of his Youth, and in his maturer state scarce got out of that division, disproportionately divideth his Days, crowds up the latter part of his Life, and leaves too narrow a corner for the Age of Wisdom, and so hath room to be a Man scarce longer than he hath been a Youth. Rather than to make this confusion, antic.i.p.ate the Virtues of Age, and live long without the infirmities of it. So may'st thou count up thy Days as some do _Adams_,[357] that is, by antic.i.p.ation; so may'st thou be coetaneous unto thy Elders, and a Father unto thy contemporaries.

[357] _Adam_ thought to be created in the State of Man, about thirty years Old.

[Sidenote: SECT. 9]

While others are curious in the choice of good Air, and chiefly sollicitous for healthful habitations, Study thou Conversation, and be critical in thy Consortion. The aspects, conjunctions, and configurations of the Stars, which mutually diversify, intend, or qualify their influences, are but the varieties of their nearer or farther conversation with one another, and like the Consortion of Men, whereby they become better or worse, and even Exchange their Natures.

Since men live by Examples, and will be imitating something; order thy imitation to thy Improvement, not thy Ruin. Look not for Roses in _Attalus_[358] His Garden, or wholesome Flowers in a venemous Plantation. And since there is scarce any one bad, but some others are the worse for him; tempt not Contagion by proximity, and hazard not thy self in the shadow of Corruption. He who hath not early suffered this s.h.i.+pwrack, and in his Younger Days escaped this _Charybdis_, may make a happy Voyage, and not come in with black Sails into the port. Self conversation, or to be alone, is better than such Consortion. Some School-men tell us, that he is properly alone, with whom in the same place there is no other of the same Species. _Nabuchodonozor_ was alone, though among the Beasts of the field; and a Wise Man may be tolerably said to be alone though with a Rabble of People, little better than Beasts about him. Unthinking Heads, who have not learn'd to be alone, are in a Prison to themselves, if they be not also with others: Whereas on the contrary, they whose thoughts are in a fair, and hurry within, are sometimes fain to retire into Company, to be out of the crowd of themselves. He who must needs have Company, must needs have sometimes bad Company. Be able to be alone. Loose not the advantage of Solitude, and the Society of thy self, nor be only content, but delight to be alone and single with Omnipresency. He who is thus prepared, the Day is not uneasy nor the Night black unto him. Darkness may bound his Eyes, not his Imagination. In his Bed he may ly, like _Pompey_[359] and his Sons, in all quarters of the Earth, may speculate the Universe, and enjoy the whole World in the Hermitage of himself. Thus the old _Ascetick_ Christians found a Paradise in a Desert, and with little converse on Earth held a conversation in Heaven; thus they Astronomiz'd in Caves, and though they beheld not the Stars, had the Glory of Heaven before them.

[358] _Attalus_ made a Garden which contained only venemous plants.

[359] _Pompeios Juvenes Asia atque Europa, sed ipsum Terra tegit Libyes._

[Sidenote: SECT. 10]

Let the Characters of good things stand indelibly in thy Mind, and thy Thoughts be active on them. Trust not too much unto suggestions from Reminiscential Amulets, or artificial _Memorandums_. Let the mortifying _Ja.n.u.s_ of _Covarrubias_[360] be in thy daily Thoughts, not only on thy Hand and Signets. Rely not alone upon silent and dumb remembrances.

Behold not Death's Heads till thou doest not see them, nor look upon mortifying Objects till thou overlook'st them. Forget not how a.s.suefaction unto any thing minorates the pa.s.sion from it, how constant Objects loose their hints, and steal an inadvertis.e.m.e.nt upon us. There is no excuse to forget what every thing prompts unto us. To thoughtful Observators the whole World is a Phylactery, and every thing we see an Item of the Wisdom, Power, or Goodness of G.o.d. Happy are they who verify their Amulets, and make their Phylacteries speak in their Lives and Actions. To run on in despight of the Revulsions and Pul-backs of such Remora's aggravates our transgressions. When Death's Heads on our Hands have no influence upon our Heads, and fleshless Cadavers abate not the exorbitances of the Flesh; when Crucifixes upon Mens Hearts suppress not their bad commotions, and his Image who was murdered for us with-holds not from Blood and Murder; Phylacteries prove but formalities, and their despised hints sharpen our condemnations.

[360] _Don Sebastian de Covarrubias_, writ 3 Centuries of moral Emblems in _Spanish_. In the 88th of the second Century he sets down two Faces averse, and conjoined _Ja.n.u.s_-like; the one a Gallant Beautiful Face, the other a Death's-Head Face, with this Motto out of _Ovid's Metamorphosis_, _Quid fuerim quid simque vide_.

[Sidenote: SECT. 11]

Look not for _Whales_ in the _Euxine_ Sea, or expect great matters where they are not to be found. Seek not for Profundity in Shallowness, or Fertility in a Wilderness. Place not the expectation of great Happiness here below, or think to find Heaven on Earth; wherein we must be content with Embryon-felicities, and fruitions of doubtful Faces. For the Circle of our felicities makes but short Arches. In every clime we are in a periscian state, and with our Light our Shadow and Darkness walk about us. Our Contentments stand upon the tops of Pyramids ready to fall off, and the insecurity of their enjoyments abrupteth our Tranquillities.

What we magnify is Magnificent, but like to the _Colossus_, n.o.ble without, stuft with rubbidge and coa.r.s.e Metal within. Even the Sun, whose Glorious outside we behold, may have dark and smoaky Entrails. In vain we admire the l.u.s.tre of any thing seen: that which is truly glorious is invisible. _Paradise_ was but a part of the Earth, lost not only to our Fruition but our Knowledge. And if, according to old Dictates, no Man can be said to be happy before Death, the happiness of this Life goes for nothing before it be over, and while we think ourselves happy we do but usurp that Name. Certainly true Beat.i.tude groweth not on Earth, nor hath this World in it the Expectations we have of it. He Swims in Oyl, and can hardly avoid sinking, who hath such light Foundations to support him. 'Tis therefore happy that we have two Worlds to hold on. To enjoy true happiness we must travel into a very far Countrey, and even out of our selves; for the Pearl we seek for is not to be found in the _Indian_, but in the _Empyrean_ Ocean.

[Sidenote: SECT. 12]

Answer not the Spur of Fury, and be not prodigal or prodigious in Revenge. Make not one in the _Historia Horribilis_;[361] Flay not thy Servant for a broken Gla.s.s, nor pound him in a Mortar who offendeth thee; supererogate not in the worst sense, and overdo not the necessities of evil; humour not the injustice of Revenge. Be not Stoically mistaken in the equality of sins, nor commutatively iniquous in the valuation of transgressions; but weigh them in the Scales of Heaven, and by the weights of righteous Reason. Think that Revenge too high, which is but level with the offence. Let thy Arrows of Revenge fly short, or be aimed like those of _Jonathan_, to fall beside the mark.

Too many there be to whom a Dead Enemy smells well, and who find Musk and Amber in Revenge. The ferity of such minds holds no rule in Retaliations, requiring too often a Head for a Tooth, and the Supreme revenge for trespa.s.ses which a night's rest should obliterate. But patient Meekness takes injuries like Pills, not chewing but swallowing them down, Laconically suffering, and silently pa.s.sing them over, while angered Pride makes a noise, like _Homerican Mars_[362], at every scratch of offences. Since Women do most delight in Revenge, it may seem but feminine manhood to be vindicative. If thou must needs have thy Revenge of thine Enemy, with a soft Tongue break his Bones,[363] heap Coals of Fire on his Head, forgive him, and enjoy it. To forgive our Enemies is a charming way of Revenge, and a short _Caesarian_ Conquest overcoming without a blow; laying our Enemies at our Feet, under sorrow, shame, and repentance; leaving our Foes our Friends, and solicitously inclined to grateful Retaliations. Thus to Return upon our Adversaries is a healing way of Revenge, and to do good for evil a soft and melting ultion, a method Taught from Heaven to keep all smooth on Earth. Common forceable ways make not an end of Evil, but leave Hatred and Malice behind them. An Enemy thus reconciled is little to be trusted, as wanting the foundation of Love and Charity, and but for a time restrained by disadvantage or inability. If thou hast not Mercy for others, yet be not Cruel unto thy self. To ruminate upon evils, to make critical notes upon injuries, and be too acute in their apprehensions, is to add unto our own Tortures, to feather the Arrows of our Enemies, to lash our selves with the Scorpions of our Foes, and to resolve to sleep no more. For injuries long dreamt on take away at last all rest; and he sleeps but like _Regulus_, who busieth his Head about them.

[361] A Book so int.i.tled wherein are sundry horrid accounts.

[362] _Tu miser exclamas, ut Stentora vincere possis, Vel potius quantum Gradivus Homericus._ Juvenal.

[363] A soft tongue breaketh the bones. _Proverbs_ 25. 15.

[Sidenote: SECT. 13]

Amuse not thyself about the Riddles of future things. Study Prophecies when they are become Histories, and past hovering in their causes. Eye well things past and present, and let conjectural sagacity suffice for things to come. There is a sober Lat.i.tude for prescience in contingences of discoverable Tempers, whereby discerning Heads see sometimes beyond their Eyes, and Wise Men become Prophetical. Leave Cloudy predictions to their Periods, and let appointed Seasons have the lot of their accomplishments. 'Tis too early to study such Prophecies before they have been long made, before some train of their causes have already taken Fire, laying open in part what lay obscure and before buryed unto us. For the voice of Prophecies is like that of Whispering-places: They who are near or at a little distance hear nothing, those at the farthest extremity will understand all. But a Retrograde cognition of times past, and things which have already been, is more satisfactory than a suspended Knowledge of what is yet unexistent. And the Greatest part of time being already wrapt up in things behind us; it's now somewhat late to bait after things before us; for futurity still shortens, and time present sucks in time to come. What is Prophetical in one Age proves Historical in another, and so must hold on unto the last of time; when there will be no room for Prediction, when _Ja.n.u.s_ shall loose one Face, and the long beard of time shall look like those of _David's_ Servants, shorn away upon one side, and when, if the expected _Elias_ should appear, he might say much of what is past, not much of what's to come.

[Sidenote: SECT. 14]

Live unto the Dignity of thy Nature, and leave it not disputable at last, whether thou hast been a Man, or since thou art a composition of Man and Beast, how thou hast predominantly pa.s.sed thy days, to state the denomination. Un-man not therefore thy self by a b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l transformation, nor realize old Fables. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, and _Caricatura_ representations. Think not after the old _Pythagorean_ conceit, what Beast thou may'st be after death. Be not under any Brutal _metempsychosis_ while thou livest, and walkest about erectly under the scheme of Man. In thine own circ.u.mference, as in that of the Earth, let the Rational Horizon be larger than the sensible, and the Circle of Reason than of Sense. Let the Divine part be upward, and the Region of Beast below. Otherwise, 'tis but to live invertedly, and with thy Head unto the Heels of thy _Antipodes_. Desert not thy t.i.tle to a Divine particle and union with invisibles. Let true Knowledge and Virtue tell the lower World thou art a part of the higher. Let thy Thoughts be of things which have not entred into the Hearts of Beasts: Think of things long past, and long to come: Acquaint thy self with the _Choragium_ of the Stars, and consider the vast expansion beyond them. Let Intellectual Tubes give thee a glance of things, which visive Organs reach not. Have a glimpse of incomprehensibles, and Thoughts of things, which Thoughts but tenderly touch. Lodge immaterials in thy Head: ascend unto invisibles: fill thy Spirit with Spirituals, with the mysteries of Faith, the magnalities of Religion, and thy Life with the Honour of G.o.d; without which, though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity, and may hold a pitiful rank in that triple division of mankind into Heroes, Men, and Beasts. For though human Souls are said to be equal, yet is there no small inequality in their operations; some maintain the allowable Station of Men; many are far below it; and some have been so divine, as to approach the _Apogeum_ of their Natures, and to be in the _Confinium_ of Spirits.

[Sidenote: SECT. 15]

Behold thy self by inward Opticks and the Crystalline of thy Soul.

Strange it is that in the most perfect sense there should be so many fallacies, that we are fain to make a doctrine, and often to see by Art.

But the greatest imperfection is in our inward sight, that is, to be Ghosts unto our own Eyes, and while we are so sharp sighted as to look thorough others, to be invisible unto our selves; for the inward Eyes are more fallacious than the outward. The Vices we scoff at in others laugh at us within our selves. Avarice, Pride, Falshood lye undiscerned and blindly in us, even to the Age of blindness: and therefore to see our selves interiourly, we are fain to borrow other Mens Eyes; wherein true Friends are good Informers, and Censurers no bad Friends.

Conscience only, that can see without Light, sits in the _Areopagy_ and dark Tribunal of our Hearts, surveying our Thoughts and condemning their obliquities. Happy is that State of Vision that can see without Light, though all should look as before the Creation, when there was not an Eye to see, or Light to actuate a Vision: wherein notwithstanding obscurity is only imaginable respectively unto Eyes; for unto G.o.d there was none, Eternal Light was ever, created Light was for the creation, not himself, and as he saw before the Sun, may still also see without it. In the City of the new _Jerusalem_ there is neither Sun nor Moon; where glorifyed Eyes must see by the _Archetypal_ Sun, or the Light of G.o.d, able to illuminate Intellectual Eyes, and make unknown Visions. Intuitive perceptions in Spiritual beings may perhaps hold some a.n.a.logy unto Vision: but yet how they see us, or one another, what Eye, what Light, or what perception is required unto their intuition, is yet dark unto our apprehension; and even how they see G.o.d, or how unto our glorified Eyes the Beatifical Vision will be celebrated, another World must tell us, when perceptions will be new, and we may hope to behold invisibles.

[Sidenote: SECT. 16]

When all looks fair about, and thou seest not a cloud so big as a Hand to threaten thee, forget not the Wheel of things: Think of sullen vicissitudes, but beat not thy brains to fore-know them. Be armed against such obscurities, rather by submission than fore-knowledge. The Knowledge of future evils mortifies present felicities, and there is more content in the uncertainty or ignorance of them. This favour our Saviour vouchsafed unto _Peter_, when he fore-told not his Death in plain terms, and so by an ambiguous and cloudy delivery dampt not the Spirit of his Disciples. But in the a.s.sured fore-knowledge of the deluge, _Noah_ lived many Years under the affliction of a Flood; and _Jerusalem_ was taken unto _Jeremy_, before it was besieged. And therefore the Wisdom of Astrologers, who speak of future things, hath wisely softned the severity of their Doctrines; and even in their sad predictions, while they tell us of inclination not coaction from the Stars, they Kill us not with _Stygian_ oaths and merciless necessity, but leave us hopes of evasion.

[Sidenote: SECT. 17]

If thou hast the brow to endure the Name of Traytor, Perjur'd, or Oppressor, yet cover thy Face when Ingrat.i.tude is thrown at thee. If that degenerous Vice possess thee, hide thy self in the shadow of thy shame, and pollute not n.o.ble society. Grateful Ingenuities are content to be obliged within some compa.s.s of Retribution, and being depressed by the weight of iterated favours may so labour under their inabilities of Requital, as to abate the content from Kindnesses. But narrow self-ended Souls make prescription of good Offices, and obliged by often favours think others still due unto them: whereas, if they but once fail, they prove so perversely ungrateful, as to make nothing of common courtesies, and to bury all that's past. Such tempers pervert the generous course of things; for they discourage the inclinations of n.o.ble minds, and make Beneficency cool unto acts of obligation, whereby the grateful World should subsist, and have their consolation. Common grat.i.tude must be kept alive by the additionary fewel of new courtesies: but generous Grat.i.tudes, though but once well obliged, without quickening repet.i.tions or expectation of new Favours, have thankful minds for ever; for they write not their obligations in sandy but marble memories, which wear not out but with themselves.

[Sidenote: SECT. 18]

Think not Silence the wisdom of Fools, but, if rightly timed, the honour of Wise Men, who have not the Infirmity, but the Virtue of Taciturnity, and speak not out of the abundance, but the well weighted thoughts of their Hearts. Such silence may be Eloquence, and speak thy worth above the power of Words. Make such a one thy friend, in whom Princes may be happy, and great Councels successful. Let him have the Key of thy Heart, who hath the Lock of his own, which no Temptation can open; where thy Secrets may lastingly ly, like the lamp in _Olybius_ his Urn,[364]

alive, and light, but close and invisible.

[364] Which after many hundred years was found burning under ground, and went out as soon as the air came to it.

[Sidenote: SECT. 19]

Let thy Oaths be sacred, and Promises be made upon the Altar of thy Heart. Call not _Jove_[365] to witness with a Stone in one Hand, and a Straw in another, and so make Chaff and Stubble of thy Vows. Worldly Spirits, whose interest is their belief, make Cobwebs of Obligations, and, if they can find ways to elude the Urn of the _Praetor_, will trust the Thunderbolt of _Jupiter_: And therefore if they should as deeply swear as _Osman_ to _Bethlem Gabor_:[366] yet whether they would be bound by those chains, and not find ways to cut such _Gordian_ Knots, we could have no just a.s.surance. But Honest Mens Words are _Stygian_ Oaths, and Promises inviolable. These are not the Men for whom the fetters of Law were first forged: they needed not the solemness of Oaths; by keeping their Faith they swear,[367] and evacuate such confirmations.

[365] _Jovem lapidem jurare._

[366] See the oath of _Sultan Osman_ in his life, in the addition to _Knolls_ his Turkish history.